Consumer Advocate Examines Benefits of Energy Production to Florida’s Families, Small Businesses, Tourism and Industries in New Report

December 11, 2018

Orlando, Fla. — Thanks to increased production and safer, state-of-the-art technologies – which together have decreased the price of natural gas – Florida’s families and businesses saved more than $8 billion between 2006 and 2016, according to a state report released by Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), with calculations developed by Orion Strategies.

The analysis details how the national and local energy revolution has helped Florida energy consumers increase disposable income, adding to job growth, and economic investment while revitalizing communities. It also details how Florida’s lack of availability to local and state resources creates a reliance on energy infrastructure to ensure that affordable energy can be delivered to the state. As a result, it is critical that families and businesses work with local and state governments to guarantee that current, and future, Floridians are able to count on domestic energy and a robust pipeline network to deliver energy to their homes and businesses.

Highlights from the report include:

Nationwide, advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have increased production of natural gas across the U.S. and enabled Florida consumers to save more than $8 billion between 2006 and 2016. Residential users saved almost $798 million while commercial and industrial users saved more than $7.2 billion.

On average, each resident spent $2,525 to meet their energy needs in 2016. For the 14 percent of the state’s population living at or below the poverty line, this translates to at least 20 percent of their income going toward energy expenses.

Florida is a non-producing state; it has no significant crude oil reserves and accounts for less than 0.1 percent of U.S. production. Annual production from the Jay Field in the Florida Panhandle totaled less than 2 million barrels in 2017, and Florida’s limited natural gas production derives from this same region.

While Florida’s natural gas supplies are transported by interstate pipelines from the Gulf Coast region, there are no interstate crude oil pipelines and no refineries to supply Floridians with refined oil products. The state receives the bulk of its petroleum products via overseas shipments from foreign providers.

Ninety percent of the petroleum consumed in Florida is utilized by the transportation sector. Because of the state’s large population, coupled with its booming tourism industry, the state is among the largest users of gasoline and jet fuel nationally.

Geologists believe there are substantial oil and gas resources located in federal waters in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.

In 2015, the oil and natural gas industry contributed 266,800 jobs and accounted for more than $11.9 billion in wages.

In total, oil and gas provide more than $22.1 billion to the state economy. That includes employee compensation, proprietors’ income, income to capital owners from property and indirect business taxes.

Since 2005, the U.S. power sector has reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 28 percent.

“This report demonstrates how Florida families and businesses who use energy benefit from maintaining an all-of-the-above energy strategy that emphasizes the growth of all resources and the expansion of all energy infrastructure, here and nationally,” CEA’s Florida Director Kevin Doyle said. “Tourism is crucial to Florida’s economy, creating 1.1 million jobs for Floridians and pumping $51 billion into the state’s coffers. None of this would be possible without energy.”

Doyle continued: “Resources such as oil and natural gas are necessary to fuel the airplanes and cars that visit our state daily. These same resources power theme park rides, light our homes and keep us cool during hot, humid summers. Floridians need to understand how supporting productive energy policies is critical to ensuring that families and businesses can continue to count on domestic energy and the pipeline networks that deliver it to our homes and businesses while also striving to achieve our environmental goals.

Doyle added, “Unfortunately, energy from Florida’s pipeline network and potential future access to valuable offshore and onshore energy supplies is under attack by anti-development activists working to eliminate the production and transportation of safe, affordable sources of energy. These anti-development efforts not only harm the environment, but they also lack solutions to help meet consumer demand and threaten our environmental goals. CEA strongly encourages Florida’s elected leaders to come together and work through ways that we can continue to support energy solutions that will ensure affordable, reliable energy for everyone.”

About Consumer Energy Alliance
Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) brings together families, farmers, small businesses, distributors, producers and manufacturers to support America’s energy future. With more than 500,000 members nationwide, our mission is to help ensure stable prices and energy security for households across the country. We believe energy development is something that touches everyone in our nation, and thus it is necessary for all of us to actively engage in the conversation about how we develop our diverse energy resources and energy’s importance to the economy. Learn more at ConsumerEnergyAlliance.org.